O'Rourke is not "proud" of the fantastic writings on teen murders

After an appearance at an Iowa art store, Beto O'Rourke was not surprised that her writings on teenage girls were coming up. | Puce Somodevilla / Getty Images

"WASHINGTON, Iowa – Beto O'Rourke said Friday that he was" not … proud "of the fiction written in adolescence on the murder of children, while recognizing that his discovery could hurt his campaign.

"Things I was part of as a teenager … nothing that I'm proud of today," O'Rourke told reporters outside the meeting. "And I mean, that's all."

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O 'Rourke's remarks follow a report in Reuters that O' Rourke, as a young member of the computer hacking group Cult of the Dead Cow, has written an article online about how the society could work without money and, in a more disturbing missive, on murder. the children.

"One day, while driving home, I noticed that two children were crossing the street. They were happy, happy to be released from their troubles. … This happiness was mine by right. I deserved it in my dreams, "he wrote, according to Reuters. "When I approached the younger ones, I put all my weight on my right foot, keeping the accelerator pedal on the ground until I heard the crash. of the two children on the hood, then the acute scream of pain of one of the two. . One moment, I was so fascinated that, after stopping my vehicle, I sat in a vertigo, beautiful visions filling my head.

The report, from a forthcoming book on Cult of the Dead Cow, was released as O'Rourke crossed the second day of his presidential campaign in Iowa. He declined to reveal how much money his campaign had raised in the first 24 hours, a standard indicator of early support in the presidential race.

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"I can not now," he says before adding, "Let me answer better: I choose not to do it."

O'Rourke raised more than $ 80 million in his record in the Senate in 2018. More than three-quarters of that money came from online donors, according to a POLITICO analysis of documents filed by the Federal Election Commission with ActBlue. , the online fundraising platform used by O'Rourke and other Democrats.

According to his campaign, Senator Bernie Sanders set the tone for fundraising on the first day of 2020, raising $ 6 million in 24 hours after announcing his candidacy for the presidency. The launch of Senator Kamala Harris was the second most lucrative to date: her campaign campaign raised more than $ 1.5 million on her first day in the race.

O'Rourke never reached the level of fundraising reached by Sanders last month, but he collected more than a million dollars online four different days during his campaign in the Senate, according to the series of films filed by ActBlue. And one day, September 30, O'Rourke raised nearly $ 2.2 million online, as interest in his race against Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) reached a record high.

The campaign against Cruz has allowed O & # Rourke to build a national base of small donors, but his support has focused on Texas, which has not traditionally been a major source of fundraising for the Democrats and was largely untapped by O'Rourke's rivals in 2020 – a potential advantage for his presidential campaign, though supporters of his home country remain with him. O'Rourke has received more than $ 30 million in online contributions from Texas in 2017 and 2018, with an average donation of $ 41. His best states were Democratic Donor Bastions Online: California, New York, Massachusetts, Washington, and Illinois.

O 'Rourke launched a frantic campaign to raise money online when he announced his candidacy Thursday. It is unclear when he will release his first fundraising figures, if any, or whether he will wait for the federal filing deadlines. The candidate was running between two tests in East Iowa on Friday and had to stay in the state the next day.

After an appearance at an Iowa art store Friday, O'Rourke was not surprised that his writings on adolescence are surfacing.

"I hope that, to the extent possible, we focus on the real big issues that people in this room are concerned about, which matter to me, that led Amy and I to participate in this course."

When asked if the writings could hurt his campaign, he replied, "It's possible."

"All I can do is do my best, and that's what I'm trying to do," O'Rourke said. "I can not control anything of what I did in the past. I can just control what I'm doing in the future. "

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